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Monday, August 23, 2010

Mmmm, ribs. I had for ribs for lunch

So, I had bought ribs from Costco a while back and still had some left over -duh I bought them at Costco. Which for a family of 2 seems ridiculous, but it means I ALWAYS have some kind of meat in the freezer! So I called my Mum and asked her for her rib recipe. Which I couldn't make the last time I made ribs because this recipe requires you to marinate the ribs overnight, ideally.

Marinade:

2 Tbs grated lemon rind

1/3 C fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 C grated onion

1/4 vegetable oil (olive oil)

2 Tbs Oregano

1 1/2 tsp garlic salt/powder

2 Tbs liquid honey

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Cut the ribs into individual pieces and put in a large Ziploc bag. Pour marinade into bag and seal. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 8 hours, up to 24 hours. When ready to cook, line the baking sheet with tinfoil and place ribs and marinade on baking sheet. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 1 hour.

Turn the ribs occasionally and baste with liquid. NOTE: make sure to line your baking pan with tinfoil! The sugar in the honey will stick and burn onto your pan!!! Save your baking sheet!!!

Now while the ribs are cooking I decided to make roast asparagus and rice pilaf. The asparagus is easy. Trim the woody ends and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on the top rack of the oven for the last 15-20 minutes of the ribs cooking time. Take out and turn asparagus while cooking if desired! You can do this same method on the BBQ in a BBQ basket!

Now for slightly more exciting rice (not that exciting, but better than regular ole white rice), I cook my Uncle Ben's in vegetable broth instead of regular water. Towards the end of the cooking time, I throw diced celery, mushrooms and finely minced parsley into the pot to add a little something extra. You can have any combination of veggies/herbs you like. A great combo for fall is chopped almonds and cranberries!!!

I find that this is the best way to make plain old white rice more bearable....particularly if you don't have a juice/gravy to put on your rice. For example, I would not do this if I was cooking curry (that's tonight. Should I blog about this? Maybe, I do love curry).

It was a great combo and a great dinner. The ribs were lovely-tender and crispy on the outside. My tinfoil pan did take a beating and (since I ripped the tinfoil and the juice leaked onto the actually pan) is currently sitting in the sink, soaking. Big thanks to Ty for scrubbing at it last night! I would have liked to have more colour in the rice, since our dinner was a little bit green, white and brown. My high school Home Economics teacher, Mrs Ens, gave me the only practical some advice from that class that I carry with me. If your plate is colourful, your meal is probably healthy & you are getting a good balance of vitamins/minerals, veggies, carbs, protein etc.

Not the best presentation, but I was hungry and didn't care what it looked like. Next time, I promise a better presentation! PS these are the tail ends of the ribs-riblettes?-and are quite crispy (personal preference)